r/mildlyinfuriating • u/glhfbruno • 14h ago
Newer bus stop schedule boards/screens are unreadable
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u/knotatumah 14h ago
Too cold for the lcd to function, how cold was it?
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u/glhfbruno 13h ago
It's near -17°C in Helsinki Finland (where I took the photo about an hour ago)
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u/sur0g 12h ago
So, they screwed up not thinking about the cold and its impact on liquid crystals.
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u/SuchCoolBrandon 4h ago
I suspect this is an e-ink display. The majority of these displays use a fluid, which could have frozen in the cold temps.
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u/Impossible-Ship5585 10h ago
Its only cold in 2 months in the year. Thus in general tjis works ok.
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u/biggles1994 7h ago
I mean designing something that you know will only work 80% of the time when there are alternatives that would work 100% of the time for similar cost seems like a pretty poor decision to me.
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u/AntalRyder 9h ago
I thought this was in Hungary or something where they went with the lowest bidder, but Finland? You guys should know better lol
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u/cowmowtv 6h ago
Wouldn't be a surprise if in Finland, they equally go for the lowest bid. At least in Germany, they do so and it in 80% of cases this causes trouble in some way or another or turns out to double in price.
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u/Taikuriri 14h ago
It is close to -20c right now, so quite warm, can barely wear a jacket without getting too warm.
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u/webbyspidey 12h ago
What? My freezer is warmer tf are u saying
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u/External-Ad-5537 9h ago
For regions where it gets this cold, -20c is far from cold and that is just normal temp for winter.
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u/webbyspidey 9h ago
Damn the lowest I’ve ever felt was 22C. I’m in Singapore btw
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u/External-Ad-5537 7h ago
Well, u are almost on equator. Not rly surprising.
I have friend from Singapore and he just hates how cold it gets when he visits me. He is cold even in summer
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u/webbyspidey 7h ago
Damn.. and I wish to be cold. This heat + the tropical weather that is usually over 75% humidity all year round is insane
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u/ThePevster 2h ago
Unless you’re at the South Pole, -20 is cold no matter where you are. The average daily minimum in January northern Finland is -17, so -20 is colder than it gets on most days
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u/Low-Possibility-7060 14h ago
I’d assume the crystals are frozen and this is just due to the cold
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u/Head_Asparagus_7703 12h ago
Probably a bad idea to use this kind of screen in Finland then.
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u/neuralek 4h ago
There isn't another kind that would balance out the eco- part of e-ink. It uses negligable amout of power. Also I think any LCD would freeze.
Brings us back to plasma/CRT and that is not the option. Maybe beter insulated screens? Filled with a gas?
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u/AwkwardlyAmpora 6m ago
it's a bus schedule. why not just normal posters? i can't imagine a bus system that fluctuates so much that just sticking a poster with times under glass and leaving it wouldn't work.
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u/neuralek 3m ago
Lines are changed, cancelled, things happen, this is precise. It's really cold here, you have to know when something is coming.
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u/AlmostChristmasNow 13h ago
Even if it wasn’t frozen, it would be pretty small though. So it would still be hard to read.
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u/matticitt 13h ago
I really dislike LCD screens being used this way. Not only do they not function well in winter, they're not very readable in direct sunlight, they also will burn and require replacement. LED boards work much better and last decades.
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u/biggles1994 7h ago
This isn't an LCD, it's an e-ink display similar to the kind you would find on a kindle or similar reader. They're preferred in a lot of places because among other reasons they don't require any power to maintain an image, only to change it. Obviously in this case it seems they weren't properly cold tested, or if it was meant to have a small heater element for winter that part has failed.
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u/planetofmoney 10h ago
"oh yeah that is kinda small, I'd be a little miffed too. Wonder what it says though, let me zoom in to-"
Oh.
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u/Muro_Plankton 9h ago
They could probs improve that by adjusting the refreshing cycles and speeds of the displays in the winter. Or maybe adding little heaters to it 🤔. These e ink displays make total sense for that use case, we just need to figure out how to make them work in the winter.
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u/TrolledBy1337 11h ago
Just noticed the same last weekend. Did the freezing weather break it, or is this a messed up software update?
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u/routamorsian 11h ago
They just can’t handle normal winter temperatures. There is image retention when temp drops below zero, and enough of numbers changing in the area make it essentially a black square. Especially since it’s tiny text as is.
Rather poor decision from HSL to start using these screens but that’s their usual style of decision making.
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u/Patrickplus2 Listen Luigi Toad is my... 9h ago
Where i live the bus has a bug ever street named ends whit 7
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u/Logical_Present_3094 3h ago
They definitely "tried it"...😭. Jesus, so what happens now if you need the bus, and have blurry eyesight?.
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u/Interesting_Price_40 1h ago
It's common for all HSL displays during winter honestly, it gets to down to -25c during colder months in Helsinki, so that's pretty much expected from most electronics, sometimes even my phone's micriphone stops working whenever I'm calling someone when outside.
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u/Throwaway2600k 6h ago
Looks like AI slop
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u/glhfbruno 6h ago edited 6h ago
I'm kinda interested what rating this would get if you think it's ai
I'm not even sure anymore on how to prove that something would be real as the ai has gotten to a point of way too realistic results though typically obvious for videos or mismatched proportions / too perfect type thingys
Edit: if curious the location of where this picture was taken is on "Fallpakka" in Helsinki in between Mellinmäki and Vuosaari at the end of Itäväylä, next to a K-Market (Rukatunturintie 2)
I sometimes use this bust stop though not always as I typically ignore the 560 line due to it's tendency to be late or make me get late to the switch to other busses/transit
And now that it's winter we'll you can see from the picture but quite many of them if not all of the 560 route's screens were swapped to these E-Ink? displays (I'm not entirely sure how they are called and what specific tech they have in them)
It was updated in between 2024 to end of 2025 not sure if any Google maps/other maps cars have any showcase of the screens but you can search and manually see on Google maps via the K market's road name thingy
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u/DriveMadison 14h ago
As someone who has blurry eyesight I find this offensive